Neil Young argues with companies. President Trump is one of them, of course, easy target, and now Bezos. Spotify off and on. That doesn’t go with “Heart of Gold,” does it?
So you think the search for a lover is separate from politics? Trump denies that climate change exists and that’s like saying “I don’t like the Earth”. With Neil, there is always a through-line from loving your lover, loving the Earth and being good to people. If you go to his shows, he effortlessly goes from “Heart of Gold” and “Harvest Moon” to “Mother Earth” to “Rockin’ in the USA” to “Who’s Gonna Stand Up for the Earth” and the theme is love people and love the planet…. The words of that “Stand Up” song are
Who’s gonna stand up and save the Earth
Who’s gonna say that she’s had enough
Who’s gonna take on the big machine
That’s the “Love Earth” concept, the name of the tour that Neil and Daryl Hannah have taken to 60 cities around the world. To love a person and to love the planet – goes together. And who’s against that love? The big machine, and they have taken on the big machine since the Monsanto album in 2016, since before that.
If you love the Earth then you don’t poison and pollute her. Amazon puts 68 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in the air last year, and pollutes the oceans with plastic packaging waste (709 million tons in 2021). Spotify poisons songs by taking away their power, and if you take the power of Neil’s songs then you take away the love that is transmitted to the listeners, and those activists need to be you and me, with our love…
Rev. Billy